Sports

She’s never really been proud of her country and he’s never not been proud of himself. Or China. Now, they want to make sure people who wouldn’t otherwise show up and exercise the franchise of their own volition are enticed to vote with bread and circuses. But the only thing more unlikeable than a Michelle Obama-LeBron James political partnership partnership is the way the AP is reporting it…

Well here’s some news to break the heart. Yahoo Sports reports that “Game 1 of the Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat brought in only 7.41 million viewers to ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is reportedly the lowest viewership seen for the Finals since at least 1994, when total viewers began to be regularly recorded.”

Who would envision living in a time where an American athlete could be suspended from his team’s competition for supporting his country’s duly-elected president? Well we don’t have to imagine it. This week professional American cyclist Quinn Simmons was sidelined from competition for disagreeing with a journalist’s negative appraisal of President Donald Trump.

As is his wont from time to time, Charles Barkley is talking sense again. Appearing Thursday on TNT’s Tip-Off program, and discussing the grand jury’s decision not to charge officers in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, Barkley did something few in the lefty sports media are willing to do: deal with the facts of the case.

Colin Kaepernick believes that this country will be safer without police departments, according to popculture.com. Yesterday, the activist and ex-football player tweeted that “The white supremacist institution of policing that stole Breonna Taylor’s life from us must be abolished for the safety and well being of our people.”

ESPN: come for the video highlights, stay for the social justice lectures. There certainly isn’t much else to keep you there. If you were hoping for pregame analysis of the Celtics-Heat game on Wednesday, you instead got self-dramatic grandstanding from former NBA player-turned-analyst Jalen Rose.

One team down, four to go. They neutered the Redskins, who now go about as the Washington Football team. Who’s next? Simon Moya-Smith called for the renaming of the Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Blackhawks, Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves to prevent the “dehumanization and commodification of an entire race of people.”

Over the weekend, professional athletes and sports writers ratcheted up debate over the social justice movement currently straining sports' place in the American culture. On the left, LeBron James and USA Today writer Jarrett Bell defended social justice protest, and on the right, ultimate fighter Colby Covington and Outkick's Jason Whitlock ridiculed it.

On Thursday afternoon’s CNN Newsroom, host John King conspired with sports analyst Christine Brennan to politicize and fearmonger about the Big Ten announcing that it is playing football this fall. Brennan, resembling a Democratic operative more than a sports journalist, accused President Trump of pushing the Big Ten presidents into “steering their student athletes right into the…

On Sunday, the entire NFL decided that it would honor victims of social injustice and police brutality. All, except for one player. Pittsburgh Steelers Left Tackle, and former Army Ranger, Alejandro Villanueva, decided to depart from that narrative.

Did you enjoy forgetting about 2020 for a while while watching the NFL on Sunday (if you could overlook the social justice symbolism)? How dare you, says New York Times sports essayist Kurt Streeter. His first “Sports of the Times” column suggests we can expect regular doses of guilt-ridden consciousness-raising from a writer who would rather talk about politics. His fear-mongering…

The USA Today sports section never misses an opportunity to bash President Donald Trump, and former Green Bay and Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren gave the newspaper another opportunity to do that Saturday. The retired coach appeared in a virtual Green Bay press conference to announce his support for Joe Biden and accuse Trump of malfeasance in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, ESPN’s headline debate show, First Take, was ready to sit up and take notice of the social justice drama that took place during Thursday Night Football’s pre-game. Unsurprisingly, the primary topic of the conversation was about the apparent booing that took place during the moment of silence for social justice.

With one single solitary exception, the social justice warriors of the National Football League got cold knees Thursday night. The visiting Houston Texans hid in their locker room during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner and the Black anthem, Lift Every Voice. One member of the home-standing Chiefs, Alex Okafor, kneeled during the national anthem, and that was it. Somewhere Colin…